Ameraucana Forum
The Official Ameraucana Forum => Housing, Health & Hatching => Topic started by: John W Blehm on December 19, 2017, 05:52:26 PM
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I know some are already incubating and maybe hatching. I'm planning on my first hatch on February 20th, which is about same week I've started hatching the last several years. This will make the oldest pullets and cockerels about 7 months old and hopefully in prime condition for our National Meet, the last weekend in September.
Generally I collect eggs and set them weekly, but I collect for 2 weeks for the first setting. That means I'll start collecting on January 15th to set on the 29th. Since I like to have breeding pens set up three to four weeks before collecting the first eggs I planned to do that this weekend. The weather was so nice the last couple days that I've got all the pens pretty much set up...maybe I'll start a week early. ;)
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I have 7 eggs in lockdown to hatch Friday. 4 are Black Ameraucanas. I love that pen of breeders, they are close to perfect as pet chickens, tame and beautiful. Thanks to John for supplying those chicks 2 years ago, I'm still enjoying those birds. Time to raise a few more for "backups" in case these hens start to slack off this year, that is why I have those eggs in so early.
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I am so far behind on my many projects I am in fear I may not get my hatching room set up in time. Last few years I had my setter and hatcher in our den since it's hardly used. This year my wife will not allow it, and I hate to admit it but her reasons are reasonable, it does cause a mess with the dust and dander lol. I tried to sneak in an old styrofoam a few weeks back but chose to keep my marriage instead ;).
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My chickens are not even laying right now. I am going to set up some lighting or I won't have an egg until March! I have overtaken my husband's shop with incubators and chicken supplies so he is ready for me to set up my own area in the barn.
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Don't feel like the Lone Ranger there, Tonto. I've got a dozen Ameraucanas in a pen with lights on them and have had for at least 2mos now and nary an egg yet.
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Royce I literally just spit my coffee out reading your post ;)
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Royce and I live in Washington on different sides of the state. I just looked at my phone weather app. It's dark at 4:14 p.m. and the sun rises at 7:42 a.m.! The days are dark and dreary. (Wow, I think I might have talked myself into a vacation.) What are you guys who live in the Northern part of the country doing for lighting? Anyone getting eggs?
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I turn the coop lights off sometime between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., and they don't go back on again until at least 9 a.m. They do have small windows, so light filters in when the sun comes up. Getting eggs from most of my matings, but fertility has been spotty.
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We're getting a good amount of sun with these very cold temps here in Michigan. The "warm" (on the Kelvin scale) LED lights in each coop are on from 6am to 6pm. They are on timers and started around last weekend when the breeding coops/pens were set up. This weekend I'll increase it from 5am to 7pm and then a week later from 4am to 8pm, for 16 hours of light per day.
I've ordered several items online to try to stop the little pint size water cups from freezing in my barn. I should have done it a few weeks ago and I'll give an update after I get them in a few weeks.
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Just to be clear, my lack of egg production Is probably due to the molt as I have the lights coming on at 0100. I don't have them come on at night but rather just keep moving the timer back earlier. I say "probably" because I am getting eggs from the other coops and the breeding pen with my Welsummers, and I haven't actually looked the birds over in about a month. The last time I did they still had some feathers coming in.
I'm trying to think (yes, it's HARD!!), and can't remember for sure, but I think the molt started about September and the production had stopped altogether by mid-October if I remember right. I've got some pullets in the pen that I don't think have laid their first egg yet.
I wonder, what's the chances that I'll get a pullet to breed that goes naked in about 2wks and is fully-feathered in about a month? Oh, AND doesn't have a major DQ? I think I'd hatch a 100 chicks from her!
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I'm behind as well, just started collecting eggs with only a handful of birds laying. I will probably do very little hatching this season, as I am looking at double knee replacement this year. My plan is to hatch a few replacement birds and test fertility, then offer up eggs to others to hatch so they don't go to waste.
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My wife and I have decided we will begin our small test hatching early this year. We plan to set around the end of next week. This year is our first attempt of hatching Splash Wheatens, so things should become quiet interesting. We also added a fibromelanistic fowl project, Blue Opals, this late summer which are also a blue egg layer. With only a breeding pair, we will also be setting a few of these eggs as well.
My main concern this year will be increasing my numbers of Silvers. We had hoped we would've been ahead with them, but Mother Nature had other plans. We lost all but two, a pullet and cockerel, Silver growouts during the flooding we endured during the Summer months. So with all that said, those of you that still have Silver LFs, I may be contacting you to be put on your Spring list.
Hope everyone has a Wonderful New Year! Stay warm!
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I use the plastic pint size hanging cups to water my bantams in the barn. During this cold spell the water freezes and I add some warm/hot water each day until the cups won't hold any more. Then I replace them and start over while the ones with ice cubes in them thaw in a heated building.
To save some time, today I just drilled a large diameter shallow hole in the ice of the ice filled ones and added the water. This supplied the birds with water and ice shavings, while saving me some time doing chores.
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The "warm" (on the Kelvin scale) LED lights in each coop are on from 6am to 6pm. They are on timers and started around last weekend when the breeding coops/pens were set up.
John, are your LED lights plugged in or are you using solar powered ones? I bought some 'solar' lights and they do put out some light but not enough.
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John, are your LED lights plugged in or are you using solar powered ones? I bought some 'solar' lights and they do put out some light but not enough.
Plugged in. I've thought about adding solar panels to the south side of the barn roof, but haven't gotten around to it. If I do they will back feed into the electrical system, so the lights will always put out 100%.
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John a little trick I found this year is have a 1' 2x12 ( just because I had one in my barn from construction) handy. I set it on the edge of a bucket and just smack the top of the cups flat against it. Usually one tap and the whole block falls right out into the bucket. I was just tapping them on the top edge of the bucket but with this real cold weather the cups would crack. With hitting them flat on the 2x12 I haven't broke one cup. Sure did save me a lot of time, I just clear all the cups, then go through filling them 8)
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I set my last batch of eggs yesterday. The animal health commission will be coming out this Friday to depopulate the remaining breeders. I should end up with around 350 chicks with all breeds and varieties combined. Mostly large fowl blacks and blues. I only got a few chicks from the bantam blacks and nothing from the bantam blues so I'll be losing those two varieties. On a positive note, I should have some birds that are in good condition for the national.
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Max, did you give up on the bantam brown reds? Or just forgot to mention them?
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Max, did you give up on the bantam brown reds? Or just forgot to mention them?
No, I still have them. I should have about 25 chicks to raise. All together I have large fowl blacks and blues, bantam brown red, bantam wheaten and bantam blue wheaten. Also the large fowl blue laced red Wyandotte and blue andalusian.
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No Splashes Max?
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I'd like to thank whoever resurfaced this thread. NOT!! Russ, put your coffee cup down. Just scrolled thru the comments and noticed mine from December. That makes 5mos now and only starting to get an egg or two! Wonderful. Just wonderful.
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Don't feel bad Royce, last week or so my Large Fowl Blues just started laying and so did the Brown red pullet and still nothing from my LF Silver and Blue Silver. Just my luck I can not set any eggs due to a family vacation during spring break >:(. I won't be able to set any eggs until April 7th :o. So I doubt I will have any real contenders for our National, still won't stop me from bringing a truck load though
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Speaking of no contender's, I put my BW rooster in the pen with the girls so I could start setting eggs as soon as they started laying. So I'm looking the birds over recently to see which of the girls I'll take and I noticed the potlicking girls have been picking out his beard. Didn't even think about that happening. Then I went out to feed and water the birds in the lower coop last night and I notice the Welsummer cockerel I planned to take is missing one of his sickles.
Go figure.
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Last week I mailed 3 boxes of 25 chicks and all arrive 100% alive! Sometimes that doesn't happen, but all live chicks or only one is much more common than the horror stories. Today I mailed out 4 boxes, although not all are Ameraucanas. Hopefully I'll be able to fill all my orders for chicks this year. I customize the boxes a bit for the weather here and considering where they are going. Many vent holes get taped closed this time of year and I sometimes include heat pads (http://www.tsksupply.com/10-pack-72-hour-quick-ship-free-usps-shipping/) in boxes.
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Great news John, I'm looking forward to my group tomorrow, in the meantime what's the middle colours?
thanks Sue
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I use the exact same heating pads on my Bantam orders. Last year I had two of them not activate or heat up. Both of them orders arrived DOA and I learned a hard lesson not to trust they always work. Now I make sure they begin to heat up prior to taping the lid on. Not sure if they were old, even though I bought them that spring, or just a bad lot?? It was the first year it ever happened to me though, just a little heads up ;)
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The chicks in the 1st box are LF black, lavender silver, silver and lavender going to CO.
Box #2 has bantam wheatens, silvers and buffs going to TX.
3 has some bantam wheaten Ameraucanas, but the others are my blue egger crosses. They arrived this morning in northern MI, near Cadillac.
4 are bantam Vorwerks and Lakenvelders headed for PA! ;)
My heat pads are stamped "Best by" some date in 2016, so they are a few years old and I bought a large package of them back then. I open and remove each one from its celophane envelope about 30 minutes to an hour before putting it into the transporting box. The two I used yesterday were nice and warm before they and the chicks went into the boxes. I used one last week for an order to MN and it didn't feel like it was warm before sending, so it may have been a dud but the chicks all made it in good condition. I set them in the middle of the box with the red lines, on the pad, faceup. I use them sparingly, knowing it is better for chicks to be too cool in transit then too hot.
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4 are bantam Vorwerks and Lakenvelders headed for PA!
Well #4 showed up yesterday. It had no tracking so we were quite surprised as the Informed Delivery from the www.USPS.com said nothing. Problem was we lost internet service when the call came in and never got the phone call -- we have VOIP phone service -- we picked them up this morning at 6:30 and they were all fine and healthy chirping up a storm. The heat pad did the trick. Thanks John for your attention and care.
Sue
Northeastern PA
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3 boxes of chicks went in the mail today.
8) Box 1 has bantam wheatens going to MO.
8) Box 2 has LF silvers & lavender silvers, with bantam wheatens and silvers going to FL.
8) Box 3 has LF blacks, lavenders and buffs headed for KS.
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1st hatch of season too early so giving all chicks to a member
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AS they say, there's never a rainy day without a silver lining.
Thanks.